Can't display windows update

When trying to access windows update i only get page cannot be displayed. (I've tried everything - stop and start from services.msc, regsrv32 lots of dlls, deleted catroot2 (read somewhere), put a new hostsfile in /drivers/etc.(Also right clicked winupdmgr.ex ran as adm). No blockings in router. I also put in some *windowsupdatesites in "trusted pages" in IE/Tools/Security somewhere... I scheduled an automatic update, but it was rescheduled to the day after...

Thing is I can't even GOOGLE windowsupdate in one word , 'cause it directly gives me a "page cant be displayed" after clicking search.

This happen after a virus/trojan removal, efter which I upgraded from IE6 to IE8. Google Chrome doesn't work at all (despite uninstall/reinstall).

However I'm quite sure I'm clean from virus now.

(I CAN download and install Microsoft updates and patches "manually" when retrieving them from other places at Microsoft's).

I used Avast, Malwarebytes, Spybot, PandaAntiRoot kit and Spyware terminator trying to fix the same problem. I found this Microsoft help page that was very useful: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/818018I was unable to register mshtml.dll per their instructions. System File Checker did not fix this registration problem. I did a "repair system" from the Installation disk. After that I had various browser error messages because the install disk put IE6 in where I had IE8. Couldn't uninstall IE8 from control panel but ran the uninstall .exe from inside the IE8 folder in Windows and finally, finally . . I could access the Microsoft upgrade site and download correctly.

Another thing worth checking is the "hosts" folder in your Windows\System32\Drivers\etc folder. Open it with notepad. You should have one entry for Localhost. If you use spybot there will be a list of entries it makes. Check to be sure a virus didn't put the windowsupgrade site in the list. If you have to make any changes you'll have to change the property from "write only" first.

Another change my virus made was it altered my security setting in IE8 to "High". I had to use a fix from the Microsoft support site to change that back. I don't know if that made any difference to the problem.

I've since had the same problem on another computer in the family and found the fastest fix was: 1. Run Malwarebytes in Safe Boot mode. That re-enabled Avast. 2. Run Avast boot scan set to check archives, highest detection level. That made everything OK except still no Windows Update access. 3. Then, instead of a OS repair, I ran a program called "combofix" despite many warning it was for experts only. Ran it in Safe Boot Mode. It deleted favorites\favdata.dat and system32\file.exe Both are malware. It also disabled PEVcfxxe which is also malware.

After that update worked fine. Don't know why the other virus scans didn't find these. I had also ran Spybot Search and Destroy and Spyware Terminator without finding these problems.

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